LOUISVILLE - Pete Harman was building a successful burger business in Utah when a white-haired, goateed acquaintance from Kentucky showed up unexpectedly and offered to cook a fried chicken dinner.

        Colonel Harland Sanders had a business proposition. He was certain that one helping of his specialty, coated with a blend of 11 herbs and spices, would persuade Mr. Harman to add chicken to his menu.

        Mr. Harman was hooked after a few bites. Soon, his restaurant was promoting the dish, called Kentucky Fried Chicken.

        The chicken became an instant hit in that August of 1952 as customers lined up outside the Salt Lake City eatery to take home dinners by the bucketful. For $3.50, they got 14 pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, rolls and gravy.

        “We couldn't cook the chicken fast enough,” Mr. Harman said.

        From humble beginnings, Kentucky Fried Chicken became a fast-food staple and its originator one of the world's most recognizable faces.

        Fifty years later, the chain built on Colonel Sanders' salesmanship and home-style cooking boasts nearly 12,000 restaurants worldwide generating sales of nearly $10 billion a year.

        “It's really one of the great American entrepreneurial stories,” said John Y. Brown Jr., who took the company's reins from the colonel.

        For Colonel Sanders, success was a long time coming. He drifted from job to job, including stints as a railroad fireman, insurance salesman, steamboat ferry operator, tire salesman and service station operator. He perfected his chicken and the cooking technique in the late 1930s while serving hungry customers who stopped at his service station - now a historic landmark in Corbin, Ky.

        Colonel Sanders decided to take his chicken from a handful of local restaurants to a national stage at the age of 62, a time when most people are thinking of retiring.

        He crisscrossed the country by car, his cookware and herbs and spices in the back, to whip up batches of chicken for restaurateurs and their employees. The demonstrations sealed many handshake deals in which restaurant operators agreed to pay Colonel Sanders a nickel for each chicken sold.

        “He was just a super salesman,” Mr. Harman said in a telephone interview.

        By 1964, Colonel Sanders had signed up more than 600 franchised outlets when he sold the company for $2 million to a group headed by Jack Massey and Mr. Brown, who later became governor of Kentucky.

        Kentucky Fried Chicken took flight under Mr. Brown and his partners. By 1971, when they sold the company for $285 million to Heublein Inc., it had more than 3,500 franchised and company-owned restaurants.

        Mr. Brown attributed the company's success to its emphasis on take-home dinners that resembled the kind mother made, a revolutionary concept in the industry.

        “It was so exciting,” Mr. Brown said. “You could just feel the electricity in the air. His chicken was so good, you couldn't mess it up.”

        The company also capitalized on Colonel Sanders' popularity. The colonel always looked the part of the Southern gentleman, wearing his trademark white suit and black string tie while pitching chicken or dishing out homespun wisdom on television shows.

        Colonel Sanders stayed on as company spokesman, promoting the chicken in folksy television commercials, until his death in 1980 at the age of 90.

        KFC changed hands a few more times. It became a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Industries - later RJR Nabisco - when Heublein sold it in 1982. PepsiCo acquired KFC from RJR Nabisco in 1986 for about $840 million.

        In 1997, PepsiCo's three fast-food restaurant chains - KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut - spun off to form Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. This year, Louisville-based Tricon changed its name to Yum! Brands Inc.

Oh, that recipe

        As the company's first franchisee, Mr. Harman and his wife, Arline, became privy to the colonel's secret blend of herbs and spices, an enduring culinary secret that gave the brand a mystique.

        The recipe itself is locked in a vault at KFC headquarters in Louisville. Only a handful of people know the ingredients and are sworn to secrecy.

        As for the company's enduring success, Mr. Harman said “the most important thing was the recipe and the product.” Mr. Harman, now in his 80s, and his wife own 307 KFC stores in Utah, Colorado, Washington state and California.

        “We put a lot of effort into anything we did,” Mr. Harman said. “Some of the things worked. We've done pretty good all along.”

"High standards'

        Cheryl Bachelder, KFC's president and chief concept officer, is a onetime pizza executive who arrived at KFC about 18 months ago. She said Colonel Sanders' legacy remains a chief motivator.

        “I love the high standards the colonel set for us,” she said. “I think it's the reason we will excel for a long, long time.”

        What Colonel Sanders handed down was an “incredibly tasty, almost addictive” product that is the basis of KFC's staying power, Mr. Brown said.

        “The concept is so strong,” Mr. Brown said. “It's endured almost every kind of change that can be thrown at a company, and they are still surviving and will continue to grow and get bigger and better.”

Important dates

        1939: Colonel Harland Sanders perfects secret blend of 11 herbs and spices in Corbin, Ky., restaurant.

        1952: Pete Harman in Salt Lake City becomes first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee.

        1956: Colonel Sanders sells the Corbin restaurant and goes on the road to enlist more franchisees.

        1964: Kentucky Fried Chicken sold for $2 million to a group of investors headed by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack Massey.

        1969: The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Colonel Sanders buys the first 100 shares.

        1971: Heublein Inc. acquires KFC.

        1980: Colonel Sanders dies.

        1982: R.J. Reynolds Industries becomes KFC's parent when Heublein Inc. is acquired by RJR.

        1986: PepsiCo Inc. acquires KFC for $840 million.

        1987: KFC opens the world's first Western-style quick-service restaurant in China.

        1991: A new logo is introduced to emphasize chicken variety, replacing the Kentucky Fried Chicken name with KFC.

        1995: KFC opens its first restaurant in Moscow.

        1997: PepsiCo. spins off domestic and international KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants to form Tricon Global Restaurants.

        2002: Tricon Global Restaurants changes name to Yum! Brands.

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